The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is not only carrying record numbers of riders, it’s cleaning up its act, allegedly.

The following information is from BART:

The latest Quarterly Performance Report (QPR) presented to the Board today included the highest rating ever for cleanliness inside trains. In fact, the QPR for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year (July – September 2012) showed improvements in all the customer-rated attributes.

The first-quarter QPR notes that the “train interior cleanliness” goal – which is measured from random on-board surveys of riders — was met for the first time ever, and train reliability indicators remained strong despite the strain on the system of record ridership.

BART has been scoring train interior cleanliness for about the past 15 years. BART scored 2.72 on a scale where riders give a “1” for “poor;” a “2” for “only fair;” a “3” for “good”; and a “4” for excellent. This QPR is the first time ever BART has met or exceeded the train interior cleanliness goal of 2.70. One factor in the high score may be the new easier-to-clean vinyl seats installed in 206 train cars. Because the new seats are such a hit with customers, BART will install the new seats in another 243 cars by July.

“Customers tell us that they place great value on our tremendous reliability, but having cleaner trains is certainly welcome and reflects our greater priority on cleanliness,” said BART Board of Directors President John McPartland. “Our interior car modifications, including the easier-to-clean seats and floors, should make things more pleasant for BART riders while we wait for the first cars of our new Fleet of the Future train cars to arrive in 2018.”

As a regular BART rider, I can say “yes, with reservations.” The cars are a bit cleaner, but only because they’re swapping out the old seats for new ones.

When that happens, the crew picks up more of the trash floating around, too, and possibly swab down the windows.

However, the carpets are still a disgrace. The seat backs are still pretty disgusting – most of the time, they don’t even appear to have been wiped down even if the seats are brand new.

The cars with new floors (why aren’t they doing floors and seats together?) are also cleaner by virtue of having new equipment. But in those cars , the seats are still disgusting and the windows are bad.

A good analogy is saying a house gets cleaner when it gets new carpets: sure, there aren’t any carpet stains, but only because the carpet is brand new. The fug of cigarette smoke is still there and there’s still crayon drawings from the kids on the walls, but the carpets are pretty.

They didn’t even rate as “good” and they’re all excited about it? It’s as nasty as ever, I’ve seen photos on FB that show absolute filth, carpets and baseboards that look like they haven’t been cleaned in the last decade. For the last 15 years or so of my commute you couldn’t even see out the windows, so much grime and graffiti carved on the windows

That’s good to hear if it’s true. Pretty damn foul form of transportation up ’till now.
Wrong weapon on a crowded train Howard K Mullins. 1918 BAR weighs damn near 16lbs empty and is around 48″ long. Plus a 30.06 you run risk of over penetration. Bitch to fire accurately unless you have a good rest or bipod. But I like your taste. It’s an offensive weapon, not a defensive one.
Sawed off 12ga side by side, or if you got money, something German in submachine gun caliber would work.
Or pretend your blind and make sure your service animal is a 160 lb Rottweiler.
Or maybe borrow BART cop’s TASER, I hear they shoot real bullets.

MOST OF THE TRAINS ARE STILL GROSS AND FILTHY. As soon as BART cleans them up, some loser gets on with their little kid who sticks his matuching blue gum on every newly covered blue seat, wonderful stuff like that. THE TRAINS ARE GROSS. The new vinyl doesn’t help that much and puke on those linoleum floors from all the giants fans who can’t hold their liquir is gross.

This is so skewed. I got to take one of these surveys. They approach you on a car with new seats and floors and one that has been wiped clean and ask you to rate it. They leave a little space at the end of the survey for additional comments. I made my “additional” statement but it wasn’t easy to do on 2 or 3 little lines.

The biggest problem is it’s the people riding BART. I have seen BART employees clean a bathroom then two people use it and it’s trashed. People are NASTY!! BART has also cut the amount of cleaners of cars and stations. Not to mention the way the parking lots look now. BART has only a few people now that take care of ALL of the BART station parking lots. They used to have a ton. Now the parking lots are all dirty, filled with glass and all the landscaping we all paid for is dead. Keep BART clean and safe BART board!!

If there is one thing BART does well, it’s patting themselves on the back. It’s a daily routine-pay almost 12 bucks round trip to get on a train and stand most, if not all the way. Step around the passed out bums sleeping in the rear seats. Amuse myself by watching water or coke bottles roll down the aisle, women changing their faces and old Chinese guys picking their nose. Then there is the ever popular cutting of the finger nails and on several occasions, toe nails. The drunk women shreeking all the way home from San Francisco to Concord. The children running up and down the aisles while the “mothers” scream into their cell phones about what an ***hole their baby daddy is. Catsup on the seat. What could be better than riding on BART? It’s only the most expensive subway in the world.

I was on BART yesterday from Concord to SFO. The little shelf area behind the side facing seat in front of me was completely filthy. I will admit I do not ride BART everyday anymore. It could be when I was riding daily I just was used to it. I will admit, if BART could run the trains as well as they do self promotion, it would be the best commuter system in the world.

I would be happy if they just managed to get the beggars off their trains. How about having a BART employee (similar to the fare checker “police” MUNI uses) to verify people have a ticket. And throwing people off the train who are reported by passengers or seen asking for money.
I’m sick of smelly bums accosting me for money on BART trains. Oh, and also seeing drunk bums sleeping on the trains, smelling up the car and using it for their bedrooms.
Where the h*ll are the very well paid BART police? I never see them on the trains but I sure see a lot of them driving around Concord, WC, and PH, usually no where near a BART station.
BTW, there are also lots of young guys who jump the turnstiles as they exit BART. Where the h*ll are the BART police?

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